Extreme Work

I’m sure you’ve noticed it, too. The extreme weather we’ve faced nationwide this year has been hard to ignore. Doubly so if you’re used to working with the seasons, and the materials you work with are directly affected by climate.

The unending drought in California, as well as the frequent & sustained heatwaves have made it that much more challenging for florists to predict what will be in season. We’re needing to think on our feet, and making big substitutions the week of our events for this reason.  Fortunately, our direct relationships with growers and wholesalers allow for close monitoring and forecasting much of the time. Flexibility and trust from our creative partners and clients has been increasingly important this season.

Hot San Francisco Summer – What?! Multiple 90℉ days are nearly unheard of in San Francisco. This was the first year that we required a flower cooler – and we’ve been at this for nearly a decade! On particularly hot weekends, we reevaluated our designs and flower choices for their heat tolerance – what would still look good by the time guests sat down to dinner? We leaned heavily on native plants this season, particularly in our installation work.

As for cut material – we know all too well the feeling of dread when a chunk of your flower order is no longer available. This year, we’ve had to make a list of back-ups for our back-ups. We keep hearing from farmers and wholesalers that volatility in temperature and rainfall are to blame for these dizzying swings in product availability.  This unpredictability means even the availability of mainstays are called into doubt. Local saponaria, which can be counted on for late spring to early summer designs, all but dried to a crisp by June. 

Native Californians are quite familiar with severe drought conditions and adjusting our daily practices to be water-wise. This summer, we started thinking about how our flower sourcing could be a bit more water-wise as well. We reached out to growers in the region to learn more about which flowers or plants were the most efficient to grow. We learned from Kelly at Do Right Flowers that perennials tend to be more water wise – their deeper, more established roots require less water. Another water-wise choice could be cover crops, such as buckwheat and favas. Cover crops are essentially dry-farmed, relying on rainfall and not much else.  Needless to say, we combed through the seed catalogs armed with this insight, looking for intriguing perennials and cover crop seeds that could enrich our designs.  

So, what’s a florist to do? 

• We can stay curious about growing conditions and farming practices

• We can shift toward using more water-wise ingredients such as perennials and cover crops in our designs

• We can push our creativity to design high impact, low footprint arrangements 

• We can look at our design work more critically to tease apart the nuances and role of each ingredient, so that we are intentional and confident as we make substitutions

• We can build trust with our clients by communicating our sourcing realities and well-considered substitutions

Sustainability Goals:

• Use 50% or more of the hard goods in our inventory supplementing with rentals for our events by 2024. 

• Source 40% locally grown flowers across our events by 2024

• Compost a minimum of 50% of our floral waste across our destination events by 2024. 

• For California events, in accordance with state legislation, we will compost 100% of floral material from our events effective immediately.